Chapter 999: Cleaning House

I arrived at the hotel lobby with President Lee Ha-Yoon and Reporter Jang Moon-Ki.

Through the glass windows on the left, I could see around eighty reporters crowded together in the parking lot. What was even more ridiculous was that they were smoking in a non-smoking area while grumbling amongst themselves.

-How much longer are we supposed to wait?

-Seriously. Why isn't Jang Moon-Ki coming out yet? Damn it...

-Hey, in all my years doing this job, this is the first time I've been denied coverage and stopped at the entrance.

-Why are they making us sit in a parking lot like this anyway?

Them complaining was one thing, but watching them flick cigarette ash onto the ground made me think that even the term "trashporters" wasn't harsh enough.

Looking more closely, I noticed quite a few people whose ranks were far too senior to be showing up at a scene like this.

At the very front stood Director Kim Hyun-Soo of Entertainment All Times, a fifty-two-year-old executive who spent more time on golf courses than in the field after his promotion. Next to him was Department Manager Choi Hyung-Taek, forty-nine years old, another Entertainment All Times veteran who had practically vanished from field reporting three years ago. And there was Deputy Manager Yoo Hye-Jung of Sunday Top News, forty-eight years old and far more involved in entertaining clients than actual reporting.

Judging by the number of section-chief-level reporters standing behind them, their purpose here was obvious.

"Mr. Jang. Looking at those faces, I'd say they're planning to have Director Kim Hyun-Soo lead a campaign to crush me if I refuse to reconcile with them. Am I right?" I asked.

Jang Moon-Ki answered awkwardly. "Yeah... that's right."

"Perfect."

"Huh? Perfect?"

"The more entrenched they are, the more rot they've accumulated."

At my answer, Jang Moon-Ki let out another deep sigh. "Damn it. Those sunbaes of mine... they're going to get slaughtered today..."

Listening to Jang Moon-Ki's muttering, I calmly walked out of the hotel lobby.

Creak.

The front doors slid open.

Kim Hyun-Soo tossed his cigarette to the ground, crushed it beneath his shoe, and raised a hand. "Well, look who finally came out. It's Chief Jung."

The other reporters threw down their cigarettes as well and began approaching us as a group. When they spotted Jang Moon-Ki following behind me, many of them visibly relaxed. Apparently, they had convinced themselves that I had reluctantly agreed to reconcile.

Ignoring their looks, I addressed Kim Hyun-Soo. "My apologies. The Power MeTubers' broadcasts have been so successful today that I've been busy managing everything."

Combined, the livestreams from the MeTubers at the venue were attracting more than 230,000 viewers in real time to our press conference. In other words, we no longer needed the reporters. That was the message behind my words.

Yet Kim Hyun-Soo casually brushed it aside and spoke as though the matter had already been settled. "Wow, then it'd be even better if we helped out too. Oh, and Reporter Jang told you, right? The younger reporters won't pull anything like yesterday again. Let's forget about it and work together moving forward."

An apology would have been the bare minimum. Yet he wasn't even requesting reconciliation. He was trying to force it.

The sheer audacity left me speechless.

I stepped in front of him before he could walk past me into the lobby. "Before that, shouldn't there be a proper apology?"

Kim Hyun-Soo frowned. "An apology for what?"

"For yesterday. Something like, 'Our publishers ordered us to do it, so we didn't have a choice. We're sorry. Let's work together from now on.' That's all I'm asking."

It wasn't an unreasonable demand. Because of that, several of the reporters standing behind him visibly hesitated at the word "apology." They were still young and not yet completely worn down by the industry.

However, Kim Hyun-Soo, who had spent decades crawling through this business, only looked more irritated. Then he turned toward Jang Moon-Ki behind me and demanded, "Hey, Jang Moon-Ki. Did you actually deliver the message properly?"

Jang Moon-Ki stuttered, "I... I did tell him, but..."

"Hah, this punk. The way you're stumbling over your words, you've stopped being a reporter and turned into Jung Yoon-Ho's lapdog, haven't you?"

Jang Moon-Ki simply sighed and said nothing.

"Forget it, asshole!" After berating Jang Moon-Ki, Kim Hyun-Soo immediately turned his attention to me. "Kids these days don't know how scary the world can be. Chief Jung, if you keep acting like this, I can make sure you get torn apart properly."

First came forced reconciliation, now came threats. Trashporters really never changed.

When I let out a small laugh, Kim Hyun-Soo jabbed my shoulder with his finger.

Tap. Tap.

"What's so funny? You think this is amusing? What exactly makes you so confident, huh? Your connections? Your money? Do you think reporters are that easy to deal with, you little bastard?"

'As if I would fall for something so obvious.'

He was trying to provoke me, hoping I might throw a punch. Then he would immediately collapse to the ground and play the victim. A fossilized reporter like Kim Hyun-Soo had probably run that scam more times than he could count.

I didn't even twitch. Instead, I answered in a flat tone, "Take your hand off me before I call the police."

Kim Hyun-Soo froze. "Wow. That's harsh. I poke you with a finger and you jump straight to the police?"

"That's enough nonsense. If you're not going to apologize, then leave. This is my final warning."

"The hell it is. You listen to me instead. Lift the ban on reporters immediately. Otherwise, I'll make your life a living hell."

Of course. There was no way they were simply going to leave. Their precious pride wouldn't allow them to back down. Just as I had expected, Kim Hyun-Soo continued hurling insults and endless provocations. Which meant it was time.

From the perspective of the younger reporters standing behind him, I would look like someone who had remained polite but finally reached the end of his patience after enduring constant abuse.

"How exactly are you planning to ruin my life?" I asked.

"What? Curious?"

"Yes, very."

"You're called the Chaebol Chief these days, aren't you?"

"So I've heard."

"Don't you think people would love to know how you made all that money? And where you spend it? If I expose everything, you'll fall straight into the abyss."

People who become wealthy in a short period of time usually have plenty of skeletons in their closets. They earned money through shady means, and they spent money in shady places. Once reporters dug into their finances, almost nobody came out clean.

However, I was different. I was an orphan who had never inherited a single won. And after my regression, I hadn't desperately chased wealth either. I had simply lived for my actors. The money had accumulated as a result. So a threat like this meant absolutely nothing to me.

More importantly, he had ignored my warning. Now it was my turn.

'The war starts now, you parasites.'

"Then I suppose I'll have to make your life a living hell too."

"What?"

I immediately pulled out my phone and placed a call. The other side answered after three rings.

-Yes, Mr. Jung. What can I do for you?

A deep voice came through the speaker. It was Prosecutor Seo Jae-Ill.

Without hesitation, I spoke. "Mr. Prosecutor. I'd like to report something."

-Of course. Go ahead.

Even at the mention of a prosecutor, Kim Hyun-Soo remained unfazed. "You think I'm supposed to be scared just because you said 'prosecutor'?"

Then Seo Jae-Ill's calm, heavy voice came through the phone.

-Mr. Jung. Who's standing next to you?

"The trashporter who fabricated the Chungnam aspiring actress reservoir death case five years ago into a murder."

The Chungnam aspiring actress reservoir death case refered to the case from five years ago. It was a case where a seventeen-year-old aspiring actress named Jeon Yi-Yeon had been found dead in a reservoir near her home.

At the time, she had recently been scouted by TK Entertainment and was preparing to transfer to an arts high school in Seoul. One day, she left home to meet her boyfriend near the reservoir. However, she never returned. The police immediately suspected her boyfriend, Park Ill-Soo. Yet, Park Ill-Soo insisted he was innocent.

He claimed that Jeon Yi-Yeon was about to move to Seoul, and he himself was entering his final year of high school. Between her move and his studies, he had been the one to suggest they break up.

Under normal circumstances, the case would have been ruled a simple accidental death. But the trash reporter standing before me, Kim Hyun-Soo, published a sensational tabloid article. The title was [Future Top Star Brutally Murdered by Model Student Boyfriend. The Perfect Crime Complete!]

Because Jeon Yi-Yeon had been a beautiful aspiring actress and the article was packed with lurid details, the internet immediately branded Park Ill-Soo a murderer. Not long afterward, Park Ill-Soo took his own life at the very same reservoir where his girlfriend had died. In other words, the man directly responsible for that tragedy was standing right in front of me.

"Director Kim Hyun-Soo of Entertainment All Times fabricated the case and published articles naming Park Ill-Soo as the killer. Even though he knew Jeon Yi-Yeon had committed suicide."

Kim Hyun-Soo stammered. Apparently, he hadn't expected me to know so much about the incident.

"H-How do you... know that..."

I ignored him and listened to Seo Jae-Ill.

-Wait a moment. You're saying she wasn't murdered? It was a suicide?

The case had been famous enough that even Seo Jae-Ill was vaguely familiar with it.

"Yes. After being dumped by her boyfriend, she drank and jumped into the reservoir. It was a straightforward accidental death. The records should still exist at the Chungnam Police Department. As I understand it, Reporter Kim Hyun-Soo exaggerated the case in his reporting, an innocent person committed suicide as a result, and the local police quietly buried the truth because they didn't want to deal with the fallout."

Because this involved reopening an old investigation, Seo Jae-Ill's tone became noticeably more serious.

-Where did you hear this information?

At that moment, I named the person who had told me before my regression.

"I heard it from Lee Bong-Gyu, the talent agent who scouted Jeon Yi-Yeon for TK Entertainment. He got drunk and talked about it. He said Jeon Yi-Yeon's death was tragic, but that bastard Director Kim Hyun-Soo practically murdered a high school student by branding him a killer."

-I understand. If that's true, I'll tear this apart from top to bottom. At the very least, we can clear Park Ill-Soo's name. And that trashporter too. We'll begin reinvestigating immediately.

"I'd appreciate it."

Click.

Kim Hyun-Soo staggered backward. "No! That's not true! It wasn't me!"

The reporters who had come with him instantly split apart like the Red Sea, putting as much distance between themselves and Kim Hyun-Soo as possible.

I looked at Kim Hyun-Soo with open contempt. "I hesitated before because there were people I needed to protect. Not anymore. From now on, every trashporter like you that I find is getting cleaned out. And as for the rest of you..."

At that moment, the other veteran entertainment reporters immediately began retreating.

"Hey, not me! You know me, right? I've never messed with a story badly enough to get someone killed like Kim Hyun-Soo!"

"M-Me neither! The worst I've done is exaggerate headlines for clicks!"

'Too late.'

Nevertheless, I wasn't about to let them talk their way out of it. Right in front of everyone, I began exposing the truths behind the stories they had manipulated.

"Mr. Choi. The idol-group bullying scandal seven years ago. I know you took money from the youngest member and helped manufacture that narrative. And Mrs. Yoo. The idol drug scandal four years ago. I know that article was written after you accepted a payoff from the sponsor. So wait your turn!"

One by one, I started revealing the truth behind the scandals these veteran reporters had twisted.

"No! That's not true!"

The once-arrogant reporters panicked. Then they scrambled into their cars and fled as fast as they could. Naturally, Kim Hyun-Soo was among the first to run.

'Run all you want. You're still just fleas.'

They seemed to think that escaping today would make the problem disappear. However, they were very mistaken. Once today's press conference was over, I planned to go home, organize the files, and hand every last one of them over to the prosecution.

"Phew..."

As I let out a quiet sigh, Jang Moon-Ki cautiously approached and spoke in a low voice. "I warned them over and over not to provoke you, Chief Jung..."

Even as he cursed his vanished senior colleagues, he kept glancing nervously at me.

"If you've got something to say, then say it," I said.

Jang Moon-Ki pointed toward roughly forty young entertainment reporters who stood frozen in confusion. "Well... Chief Jung. Please go easy on the younger reporters who are still here. They really don't know any better. They just learned the wrong things from their sunbaes."

Most of them were in their twenties. That made Jang Moon-Ki the most senior reporter still standing here.

'Now that the real trash ran away, it's probably time to ease off.'

I deliberately kept a stern expression. "They haven't even apologized. What exactly am I supposed to forgive?"

Jang Moon-Ki immediately caught my meaning.

"You idiots! What are you doing? Just tell him the publishers ordered you to do it and apologize! Pride's all well and good, but if you're human, apologizing when you're wrong comes first, doesn't it? Huh? Just like I am!" After shouting at them, he turned toward me and bowed deeply. "Chief Jung. I'm sorry!"

That was all it took. The younger reporters, who had been watching nervously, immediately followed suit.

"We just joined recently, so we were afraid to go against everyone. We're sorry. We apologize for participating in the boycott."

"That's right. Honestly, I came here today hoping to make things right. Watching the MeTubers work that hard while reporters played power games was embarrassing. I don't want to be called a trashporter."

"Chief Jung, the publishers ordered it. Please let it go this once. I'll apologize properly."

"Miso must've been really disappointed that day. I'm sorry. Honestly, I wanted one of those Miso dolls too..."

It would be foolish to think a few apologies would magically change every reporter. Still, they had learned one thing clearly—I wasn't someone they could push around. And now it was time to establish a new relationship with the reporters who remained. As a major shareholder of Hoop Entertainment, making permanent enemies of the press would be shortsighted.

I let out a long breath and answered politely. "I think I got a little too emotional myself and was somewhat rude to all of you. I apologize for that."

The moment I offered an apology in return, the tension in their faces visibly eased.

Then the quick-witted Jang Moon-Ki jumped in again. "All right! All right! Then let's show those MeTuber punks what real journalism looks like, huh?"

The younger reporters immediately responded.

"Yes, Mr. Jang!"

"Let's write some proper articles!"

"Chief Jung, leave it to us!"

Just like that, after winning over the MeTubers, I had won over the legitimate reporters as well. As a result, what had nearly become the worst press conference imaginable turned into one of the greatest press conferences in history.

***

The young reporters returned and began writing articles behind the MeTubers. Within thirty minutes, articles started pouring out.

[KBC's Haze — The Most Anticipated Drama of the Year!]

[Haze — A Breathless Week of Survival on a Fog-Shrouded Island. A New Horizon for Korean Television.]

[Haze Stars Sung Gyu-Hwan and Ju Yung-In Deliver Raw Performances of Humanity at the Edge of Life and Death.]

[Haze — Screams Echo Through the Press Conference Venue. A Masterpiece That Delivers Both Terror and Emotion.]

...

At first, the reporters had intended to write favorable articles as a gesture of goodwill. But once footage from Haze began playing, they started writing sincerely. Not only were Miso and Park Sang-Gyu impressive, but the performances from the leads, Sung Gyu-Hwan and Ju Yung-In, were so realistic that it was impossible to look away.

As article after article appeared online, the entire production team celebrated together. The hour-and-a-half-long press conference concluded on a high note.

Then Lee Ha-Yoon, who had watched everything unfold from the sidelines, let out a genuine sigh of admiration. "You're incredible. I was worried things would end badly with the reporters, but I never imagined you'd resolve everything like this."

Jin Ah-Ram nodded in agreement. "People who don't know any better think Mr. Jung's greatest talent is being a manager, but his real strengths are his promotional skills and his ability to handle situations like this. That's exactly why we gave him three percent of Jinseong Hotel & Resort."

Lee Ha-Yoon immediately replied with a huff. "Hmph. The Daechon Media shares we're giving him are worth way more than your hotel shares."

"What are you talking about? Do you have any idea how much our Jinseong Hotel & Resort shares are worth? You think they're comparable to Daechon Media, which hasn't even gone public yet?"

"Just wait until we do go public! It'll be a completely different story!"

I had no idea why the two of them were suddenly bickering.

Just then, Miso appeared, holding Ju Yung-In's hand after finishing her individual interviews. Dressed in a pristine white hanbok, Miso walked toward us with a bright smile. Slung across her shoulder was a tiny pink Powertuff Girls crossbody bag barely larger than her palm.

The moment Miso spotted Lee Ha-Yoon and Jin Ah-Ram, she stopped and tilted her head. "Why are you aunties fighting?"

Lee Ha-Yoon and Jin Ah-Ram immediately changed their expressions.

"We're not fighting."

"That's right. Not at all, Miso. We're just talking."

They both smiled, but Miso firmly shook her head. "That's a lie! You still have bad eyes!"

Behind her, Ju Yung-In let out a quiet laugh. "Miso's eyes are mirrors that reflect people's hearts. You should be careful."

Lee Ha-Yoon and Jin Ah-Ram immediately shut their eyes and turned their heads away. However, I couldn't figure out why Ju Yung-In seemed so happy today.

In any case, there was still more of the event left to get through, so I knelt down to Miso's eye level and tried to distract her. "By the way, Miso. Why are you in such a good mood?"

Miso turned toward me. "Because there were so many reporters and MeTuber oppas and unnies! They all said our drama was really, really good! So... um..." Her eyes sparkled. "I think our drama's going to be a huge success!"

Seeing Miso smile so brightly made all the hard work feel worthwhile. "Really? That's good to hear."

"Yep! And since it's all thanks to you, Uncle Yoon-Ho, I'll give you the present I told you about."

Earlier, Miso had mentioned over Kk Talk that she had a gift for me.

"A present? What kind of present?"

"Umm... just wait a second..."

Miso unzipped her tiny Powertuff Girls crossbody bag. Then she reached inside and started rummaging around.

I couldn't help but wonder.

'What kind of gift could possibly fit inside a bag that small?'